Monsters vs The She Beast
by tsukiryoushi
Summary: A mad scientist unleashes a strange creature that begins stalking the streets of San Francisco at night, and the Monsters are called in to investigate. But does this mysterious being have a connection to Link? And what does Katie have to do with it all?
1. Memories

Hello there. This is my first real Monsters vs. Aliens story, so please bear with me. This will eventually have Doc/Susan and Link/Katie (You can thank authors like Go-Go Spiders for giving me the idea, lol) but I'll only continue if I get enough positive feedback on it. Either way, I hope you'll enjoy this first chapter.

Note: The first part of this chapter will be about Link before he was frozen... I hope it doesn't confuse you, I just don't think he referred to himself as "the missing link" or by any real "name" back then, and he undoubtedly didn't speak english, either. It was a difficult thing to convey, so hopefully I did alright.

(I do not own Monsters vs. Aliens. I sure wish I did, but I don't, so this was written purely for fun.)

_There was his prey, swimming just a few feet in front of him. He peeked through the seaweed he hid behind, watching as the biggest fish he'd ever seen in his life floated lazily into his view. This would be all too easy._

_He crouched down in the seaweed, his green scales making perfect camouflage against the wispy plant life, tensing the muscles in his arms, legs, tail and back, ready to spring. But before he could move, a bluish-green blur zoomed past, and the fish was gone. His jaw dropped in surprise and he turned to find the fish had been snatched away by another creature. Infuriated, he bared his razor-sharp teeth and beat his chest with his fists. With a swish of his tail he swam at the other creature, but it turned just in time to swim out of the way. _

_He stopped and turned to face the other creature again, getting a good look at it for the first time, and knew right away it the same species as he was--in fact, he hadn't seen another of his species in years. Like him, this creature had four limbs--two arms and two legs-- and a long tail ending in a fin. But where he had green scales, fins on his head and back, long fingers on his hands and feet and a heavily built muscle structure, this creature was more bluish in color, with thin limbs and webbed feet. Its head was adorned by long, thin, blue tentacles, and a small fin on either side of its face. Its mouth was small, but as it hissed at him it revealed its sharp teeth, and in place of a nose there were two tiny slits. Its eyes were large and almond shaped, and were a dark shade of blue. As he looked at this creature, its slender build reminded him of the females of his species, and he concluded this new creature must also be female._

_He grunted at her, demanding the half-eaten fish she still held in her hand. She hissed back, asking why she should give up her kill._

_Her kill? He insisted with grunt that it was rightfully his kill, as he'd seen it first._

_She almost laughed at that, and refused to hand over _her_ kill to some pathetic creature that couldn't hunt for himself._

_That made him very angry. But just as he was about to beat his chest and charge her again, his instincts suddenly kicked in, warning him that danger was imminent. Could it be from the female? No, whatever the danger was, he couldn't see it. And he could tell from the way she looked around she felt it as well._

_Suddenly, he felt a current push against him, signaling that something big was swimming his way, and fast! He swam aside just in time to avoid an enormous pair of jaws, as a large, scaly beast swam past. The giant animal, a lizard like creature with a long tail, stubby limbs and a long snout, turned fast, trying to catch him in its jaws again, and it took all his strength to swim out of its reach. He finally managed to put distance between himself and the beast, but when he turned around he saw it going after the female. She swam incredibly fast, he noticed, but not fast enough, and he noticed a trail of blood floating behind her from a wound in her arm. The beast must have injured her with its claws when it first attacked._

_At first, he saw it as a prime opportunity to escape. Let the annoying female get chomped, it served her right! But still, as he saw her struggle to run away, injured as he was, he felt a gnawing in the pit of his stomach. Finally, with an annoyed groan, he swam back towards the giant beast. Grabbing it by the tail, he had very little success slowing it down, but definitely got its attention. It turned one red eye back at him, hissing loudly as it opened its jaws to strike. With a smug grin, he leapt forward, the beast's tail still in his grasp, and jumped away just as the jaws came crashing down. The beast roared in pain, having bitten its own tail, while he swam to the female and helped her swim away. _

_The beast soon recovered and was right on their tails again. He knew he couldn't outrun it for long, weighed down as he was. But just ahead he noticed a grotto, just small enough for himself and the female and he swam for it. He passed through with ease, but the beast crashed right into the rocks, knocking itself out. With a laugh, he kept swimming till he was sure the reptilian nightmare wouldn't find them again, and found a nice, bare stretch of sand to rest on. He set the female down and laid back in the sand, catching his breath._

_He lay there for several minutes, his eyes closed, but sat up when he heard a curious hiss. The female, to his surprise, was still there, her head tilted to the side as if to ask why he had saved her._

_He grunted sharply and turned away, preferring to rest than explain himself. But he suddenly smelled the delicious scent of fish, and opened his eyes again to see the half-eaten kill held in front of his face. The female smiled at him, still holding the fish in front of him, and when he grunted she told him it was her way of repaying him._

_Finally, with a smile, he took the fish. After all, half a meal was better than none, and he thanked the female._

…_Though he still insisted it was _his _kill in the first place._

_---_

_The moon was exceptionally bright that evening as they sat together on the beach. He thought to himself how strange it was to find another creature that could breath air like he did, but he wasn't complaining. She had been pretty good company the past few days. And he had to admit, it was quite refreshing to swim with another living creature._

_As they sat on the sand, however, the female rubbed her arms and shivered. He knew it was cold--it had been cold for as long as he could remember--but she seemed more deeply affected by it than he was. He grunted, asking if she was alright, and she replied with a nod and a wave of her hand. But she couldn't contain another shiver. He felt her hand in his, surprised to find her skin so much colder than his own, and put an arm around her gently. She was surprised, of course, but his warmth seemed to comfort her and she smiled. She leaned against him, resting her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes, hissing a soft "thank you."_

_He smiled back and continued to watch the moon overhead as it passed across the sky._

_---_

_Colder… why was it getting so much colder?_

_Months passed by, and the two sea-dwelling creatures had not spent a day apart. But as the time passed, he couldn't help but feel the definite drop in temperature. As they swam together, they both began to notice large chunks of ice begin to appear, slowly growing larger and more numerous, until finally they could swim to the surface and walk on the ice as if it were an island. It definitely troubled him._

_But, as bad as things seemed for him, they seemed worse for the female. He could tell by her constant shivering that she felt the cold much more than he did, and as the temperature dropped she became more and more sluggish, until finally she seemed to lack the energy to even swim. He worried for her, having come to think of her as his mate despite the fact that they were of two different species, and knew if he didn't help her… he would lose her._

_He tried with all his might to warm her. He would hold her tightly in his arms, he would rub her limbs, trying to get her blood flowing, he even took her to the surface of the water hoping the sun would warm her. But nothing helped. She continued to lose her energy at an alarming rate._

_He brought her to the surface, where snow and ice had covered the ground, and carried her across the frigid landscape, hoping to find something, anything to warm her. He searched for any kind of plantlife, hoping to find some covering for her, but everything by now was covered in snow. And shelter seemed out of the question, if there were any caves around they had been blocked off by now._

_He searched frantically, feeling her fading in his arms, but she stopped him, telling him in a weak voice to put her down. He refused, saying he wasn't going to let her die, but she shook her head. She knew it was a futile effort. She felt so sleepy… she just wanted to close her eyes and drift away. He grunted angrily, telling her not to dare close her eyes. He didn't know what was happening, but he knew she couldn't close her eyes or she would be lost. But finally, after trudging through the snow for hours, his own energy began to fade as he began to feel weaker and weaker in his legs. Finally, he couldn't take another step and he fell to his knees. There was still nothing but white as far as he could see._

_The female smiled up at him, still insisting it was alright. With the last of her strength she touched his face gently, looking into his eyes as her own began to close._

Don't close your eyes… Don't you dare close those eyes! _But nothing he could do could keep her from drifting away now. She closed her eyes, falling into a deep sleep, and her breaths came slower and slower, until finally they stopped completely._

_Tears ran down his face as she became limp in his arms. He gently shook her, as if hoping to wake her up, but he knew she was gone…_

_As the winds howled around him and the snow fell to the ground, he held her tightly in his arms, no longer trying to restore the warmth in her body… but instead lamenting the death of his only mate._

---

_Beep…beep… beep…_

The red light blinked on and off, accompanied by that damned beeping he had put up with every morning for almost fifty years.

Slowly opening his eyes, the Missing Link looked around, not surprised to find himself home in his own tank, underwater, with the alarm still blinking and beeping overhead. He sat up and stretched his limbs, but instead of jumping off his cot as he usually would to start his morning weight-lifting routine, he sat there staring into space. It was that dream again.

The beeping finally stopped, and Link sluggishly stood up. He decided to ignore his weights that morning and left his cell, headed to the common room for breakfast.

He found he was not the first up, as Susan, Dr. Cockroach and Bob already sat in the common room eating. Susan, as usual, ate her oatmeal at her enormous table, while Doc dined upon the morning's garbage, and Bob was in the process of dissolving a turkey.

Link heard a loud roar and turned to see his old pal Insectosaurus standing on the other side of the room, his wings folded against his back. "Mornin', Insecto!" he called up to the giant butterfly, receiving a low roar in reply.

"Morning, Link," Susan said, in her usual friendly way.

"Ah, Link," Doc said after finishing off an old egg-carton. "How did you sleep?"

Link shrugged his shoulders as he sat down at the table. The same, familiar hose came down from the ceiling, dropping a pile of fish in front of him. Normally he would dive right in, but today he just didn't have much of an appetite, and could only nibble one the tail of one fish.

"Something wrong, Link?" Doc asked, noticing Link's unusual lack of enthusiasm in his food.

"It's nothing," Link replied, not bothering to look up at the doctor. "I just didn't sleep well."

"Your sleep apnia isn't acting up again, is it?" Bob asked with genuine concern, causing Susan to giggle.

Link glared at the blob a moment. "No, that's not why I didn't sleep well. I just… had a bad dream, that's all." He took a bite out of his fish and made a point of chewing extra loud.

"Oh," said Doc, "was it _that_ dream again…?"

Doc's voice had had only concern in it, but still Link turned to him with an angry scowl, as if he'd just said some offensive remark. "That ain't your business, Doc," he growled.

"Link, please," Doc pleaded, "I just want to be helpful…"

"You wanna be helpful?" Link asked, standing from his chair. "Then just drop it, okay?! I'm going for a walk." Before anyone could stop him, Link strode out of the common room and Doc sighed heavily.

"What's wrong with Link?" Susan asked in concern.

"Was the fish too old?" Bob took a fish in his hand and tossed it into his mouth, smacking his lips. "Hmm… nope, not the fish."

Doc shook his head. "It's that dream of his," he explained.

"What dream?" Susan knelt down in order to hear the doctor better.

"Was it about bad fish?" Bob asked.

Doc sighed again. "No, Bob, it's the dream Link sometimes has, remember?"

Finally it seemed to dawn on the brainless glob of ooze. "Oooh…"

Doc turned to look up at Susan. "You see, my dear, before Link was frozen in the ice age, he was perhaps the last of his species, and spent much of his life alone. He had met another creature, however, a humanoid, amphibious being like himself…" when both Bob stared at him a moment, confused, Doc rolled his eyes. "She was a fish person, too," he explained.

"Oh, right!" Bob smiled and nodded his head happily.

"Anyway," Doc continued, "this, er… fish person, was the closest companion Link had."

"What happened to her?" Susan asked.

Doc frowned sadly. "From what Link has told me, I can only surmise that, unlike Link, she was cold-blooded. I'm afraid while Link survived the cold, his friend wasn't as fortunate…"

Susan gasped softly. "Oh, poor Link…"

Doc nodded. "We tend to forget that, though Link has always been a 'monster,' he had a life of his own before his imprisonment… Anyway, from that day to this, Link has occasionally had dreams of his friend, and her demise. I'm afraid in all our years together I've never gotten Link to open up enough about it to help him."

Susan frowned sadly and turned to look in the direction Link had gone. "I hope he'll be okay," she said softly.

---

A walk, he said… Boy, what a stupid idea.

Link sat outside the base, thinking he was an idiot for going outside. The base was, after all, situated in the middle of a desert. A hot, dry desert. And here he was, a fish-ape hybrid, sitting in the middle of that desert. Stupid, stupid, stupid! He could have said, "I'm going to my tank to work out," or, "I'm going in the other room to do… anything but stay and talk." But noooo, he HAD to say "go for a walk." Now if he went inside again he'd look like an idiot. It was bad enough he had snapped at the others when they only wanted to help…

Damn it, why did that stupid dream still bother him so much?! He was the Missing Link! The terror of Cocoa Beach, one of the toughest monsters ever to live, and had helped stop an alien invasion from enslaving the earth. Why did a memory affect him so badly…?

Sighing, Link stood up. He was fed up with the hot desert sun and decided to go back to his tank, hoping that the memories would fade again so that he could finally get some rest.

---

Hope you liked it!

A quick side note: The part about "don't close your eyes" was indeed inspired by the part in the movie where Link said that to Insecto. My thought process is that, after his "mate's" death he would equate dying with closing your eyes and drifting away, which is why he didn't want Insecto closing his eyes. *shrug* I dunno if that makes sense or not, but oh well. Please review but be kind and mature.


	2. Nightmares

Hey! Here's chapter 2, where Katie is introduced into the story. I hope she's in character... ^^;

Enjoy!

(I don't own anything from Monsters vs. Aliens.)

--Chapter 2--

"Katie…? Katie!"

"Huh, what?" Katie jumped slightly, woken from a slight daze by her friend, Sarah. "What's wrong?" She asked, yawning softly.

"You keep dozing off," Sarah told her.

"Dozing off?" Katie looked around at the food court where she and Sarah sat, eating their lunch together. It wasn't a busy day for the mall, so they were among the few people eating there at the moment and the normally bustling mall was relatively quiet.

"Did you not get enough sleep last night?" Sarah asked.

Katie shook her head. "Not really… I had this dream…"

"Dream?" Sarah leaned in close. "What was it about?"

Katie went silent, as she remembered her dream. There was nothing unusual about it at first, she had had the same dream several times since she was a kid. She dreamt she was swimming underwater, in an ocean somewhere, chasing fish of all things. She had always wondered about it, but it never bothered her before. But, the night before, when she had the dream again there was something odd about it… toward the end, she was no longer underwater, but in a blizzard. And, strangest of all, she could almost _feel_ the cold. And ringing in her ears was a voice… it was stern, but desperate, as if it were pleading with her. She couldn't make out the words--if she could call them words--but she could understand one thing: Whoever it was talking to her… he didn't want her to close her eyes.

Katie related her dream to Sarah. Normally, she would have just said it was nothing, but Sarah had known her since kindergarten. She had been there through every major part of her life. Her first crush, her first heartbreak, nearly getting killed by that alien probe, graduation… Ugh, even when she dumped that wimp, Cuthbert.

Sarah listened as Katie told her all about her dream, especially about the strange voice, and--no surprise to Katie--she nodded her head understandingly. "No wonder you didn't sleep well. That's got to be the weirdest dream I've ever heard."

"I know," said Katie. "I just wish I knew what it means."

Sarah thought for a moment. "Well, did you ever think about seeing a psychiatrist?"

Katie frowned. "Why would I want to see a shrink for some dream?"

"Well, people see psychiatrists for dreams all the time. You know, some dreams have secret meanings, or are suppressed memories, things like that."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Sorry, Sarah, but I'm not about to go see some quack and shell out good money to stare at inkblots. My mother's already always on me to see a psychiatrist after that alien invasion."

"Didn't Cuthbert start seeing a psychiatrist after that?" Sarah asked.

Katie scoffed. "Trust me, Cuthbert's issues go way deeper than finding that robot." Yawning again, Katie stood up and handed Sarah some money to pay for her share of lunch. "I'm gonna go home and take a nap," she said.

"You sure you don't want me to drive you?" Sarah asked. They had driven together in Sarah's car.

Katie shook her head. "Nah, it's okay. I think a walk would do me some good."

"Okay," said Sarah. She bid Katie goodbye, telling her to take care, and Katie left the mall.

---

Thankfully, she didn't live far from the mall, so Katie was able to enjoy her walk through San Francisco. She always loved to walk down the street on warm days like today, but as she walked she couldn't get her mind off of her dream. One time, when she was nine, she had asked her mother about it, to which her mother gently replied, "well, maybe it's because you like to swim so much."

That much was true, Katie did enjoy swimming… still, it just didn't add up in her head. Why would she be deep in the ocean, chasing after fish? Was she a shark in her dreams or something?

And what about last night…? What was it about that voice? Now that she thought about it, it sounded so sad, so desperate…

_Don't close your eyes… _Why not close her eyes? Katie sighed as she reached her apartment building. It was a modest building, not too big, but clean and affordable, made of old, brown bricks.

She went up to her small apartment and headed straight for the bedroom. She hadn't lived there long, she just moved in after graduation, but she had already grown accustomed to her new bedroom, and plopped down on the bed, ready to sleep the rest of the day away. No sooner had she laid her head on her pillow did she drift off to sleep.

But then, in just a few moments, the dream started again…

There she was, surrounded by water. Fish swam everywhere and she couldn't help but swim after them. She was quite a fast swimmer, too, though she couldn't tell why.

But then, in the blink of an eye, her surroundings changed. Once again, she found herself surrounded by snow, and, though she was dreaming, she could swear she felt the cold harshly against her skin. Why wasn't she wearing a coat or something?

Then she heard that voice again, still pleading though she couldn't understand it. All she managed to pick out were those few words, "don't you dare close those eyes…" But now, for the first time, she thought she could see the faint outline of the person talking. He was big, whoever her was, and looking down at her. Was she being held by this person?

Colder now… why was she feeling so cold? It was just a dream, wasn't it? But, dream or not, she was freezing. She tried to fight against it, but still she grew colder and colder…

"Aah…!" Katie screamed and sat up, clutching a pillow and holding it to her chest. She looked around a moment before realizing she was safe in her own bed and calmed down. "What the hell just happened?" she asked herself. People weren't supposed to feel things like cold in their dreams, were they? But even now, she felt the goose bumps running across her skin and she rubbed her arms trying to get the blood flowing.

Finally warming up, Katie took a deep, calming breath. "Maybe…" she said to herself, "maybe seeing a shrink isn't a bad idea, after all…"

---

Author's note: Sarah, Katie's friend, is named after my friend Sarah, a fellow MvA fanatic. :D


	3. Rebirth

Alright, so this chapter is crap... like, really, it's rushed, long, and really not that great at all. I know, like, nothing about psychiatrists and crap so... yeah...

Anyway, just to let you know, Katie's role in this story and the "She-Beast" is based on an old monster movie called "The She-Creature" about a hypnotist who was able to make a woman revert to a past life as a prehistoric sea creature (like a female version of the Creature from the Black Lagoon) so the basis of this story was, basically, making a girlfriend like that for Link. ^^;

Anyway, I hope you'll forgive me for this chapter and the MULTITUDE of reasons it sucks, because the chapters from here on will be much better, I swear.

(I don't own MvA. I just own Katie's She-beast form and Dr. Septimus, and I'll give them to Dreamworks if they want them. Well, maybe... .)

--Chapter 3--

_Out of all the psychiatrists, _Katie wondered to herself, _did I have to get stuck with the one who looks like an old horror film reject?_

It had been a week, and Katie continued to have the same dream almost every time she fell asleep. It was disconcerting, even to the normally brave young woman who had boldly gone to investigate when a giant fiery object fell from the sky. Finally, she had agreed to see a therapist, even going so far as to swallow her pride and ask Cuthbert for his psychiatrist's number. After getting the number--not an easy task when Cuthbert kept trying to convince her they should be a couple again--she called the doctor and made an appointment. Now she sat in his office, not on a couch, to her surprise, but in a comfortable chair, while he sat across from her.

This doctor, however, Dr. André Septimus, looked more like an old mummy than a doctor. He was considerably old--though Katie couldn't quite guess his age--with thin limbs, bony fingers and dried up, wrinkled skin. His hair was thin and snow-white, and his eyes were black. His face was thin, with a hooked nose and pointed chin, which reminded Katie of the old plastic witches her family used to decorate with at Halloween.

Still, she was paying by the hour so Katie didn't dwell on his looks. He had been nice enough, after introducing himself he offered her a seat and asked her what it was she wished to talk about, so she told him all about her dreams.

Folding his hands in his lap, Dr. Septimus listened intently, nodding every now and then as she related the dream to him. "That is all very interesting," he said at last, in a voice that reminded Katie of count Dracula, minus the accent. "And you say you actually feel cold during this dream?"

Katie nodded. "Yeah. It's weird, but I always wake up freezing."

Dr. Septimus nodded. "Well, Katie," he said, "I don't yet know what your dream means, but due to how vivid they are, I believe they may have to do with latent memories."

"Memories?"

Septimus nodded again. "I don't think you're actually feeling the cold n your dreams, but rather _remembering_ the feeling."

"Doc, I've _never _felt that cold in my life."

"Maybe not that you remember," Septimus continued, "but I suspect these are repressed memories."

"Repressed…?" Dr. Septimus nodded and Katie was silent a moment. "So, how do I make them… _un_repressed?"

Dr. Septimus stood up and walked to his desk, pulling a gold pocket watch from a drawer. "I'd like to try something," he said as he returned to his chair.

Katie looked at the watch and scoffed. "What are you going to do, hypnotize me?"

"Well… yes, as a matter of fact?"

Katie frowned and looked at the watch again. "Um, no, sorry, I didn't come here for a carnival trick…"

Dr. Septimus laughed. "On the contrary, Katie, hypnosis is a highly effective treatment for unlocking repressed memories. It's completely safe, and effective, I promise you."

Katie continued to frown a moment, but thought it over. Finally, she nodded her head. "Alright, Doctor, let's try it. But I'd better not wake up and think I'm a chicken or something."

Dr. Septimus laughed again and held the watch in front of her, letting it swing back and forth. "Alright, Katie, I want you to focus on the watch," he explained. Katie did as she was told and kept her eyes on the watch as it swung back and forth in front of her.

"You're feeling tired now," Septimus told her as he held the watch up before her eyes. "I want you to close your eyes and sleep…now."

Katie, despite her doubts about hypnosis, found her eyelids become much heavier as she looked at the watch, and when the doctor said "now" she closed her eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Dr. Septimus smiled to see the hypnosis working so far and looked at her as she slept. "Katie?" he called gently. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes," Katie replied, though she was still asleep.

"Good. Now, Katie, I want you to go back a few years, so that we can find where the memories in your dream come from. Try going back a few years, do you see what you saw in your dream?"

Katie was silent a moment, frowning a bit before shaking her head. "No… I don't."

"Hmm… Try going farther back, maybe to your early teen years."

Katie was silent again and she shook her head. "No… I still don't remember…"

Dr. Septimus took down a few notes, slightly frustrated at the lack of results. "Alright, Katie, try farther back in your childhood."

Again, Katie was silent a moment before shaking her head.

Septimus sighed and scratched his chin in thought for a moment. "Alright, Katie, let's try this… why don't you go back as far as it takes until you remember?"

Katie slowly nodded her head and became silent once more. Several minutes passed by, but Katie said nothing. Septimus was beginning to wonder if he was wasting his time when Katie finally spoke up. "I'm back," she said, in a voice so soft Dr. Septimus almost missed it.

"What?" he asked. "Where are you?"

"In the water," Katie replied.

_Finally, _Septimus thought, _we're getting somewhere. _"How old are you, Katie, and why are you in the water?"

"I don't know how old I am," she replied, "but where else would I be but the water?"

This made the doctor curious, and he leaned forward in his chair. "What do you mean?" he asked.

"I live here," she continued. "I'm hunting… there's a fish… I caught him! But now, there's something else… he wants the fish, but it's mine."

With an almost excited look, Septimus watched her face. "Katie…?"

Katie frowned in confusion. "Ka…tie…? What is a Katie?"

Now Septimus was truly excited. "Go a little farther ahead now," he said, "to when you became cold."

Katie frowned again. "It is colder…" she said, hugging herself. "Much colder… I'm with him, the one who wanted the fish… He's my friend now, and he's trying to keep me warm…" Her frown deepened, and she shook violently. "So cold… he's taking me to the surface, hoping to find someplace warm, but it's just as cold… I can't go on, but he won't listen… I just want to sleep, but he won't let me close my eyes."

Septimus nodded. "You can see him now, can't you?"

Katie nodded, a slight smile on her face. "Yes… he's there, just like always… but he seems so sad."

"What does this… this other person look like?"

"He… he's green, and covered in scales. He has a fin on has head… But he's fading. I can't hold on… everything's going black…"

Finally, Septimus sat up straight again. "Katie," he said, "that's enough. When I snap my fingers, you'll be back in the present and wake up. You won't remember what was said here. One… two…" Septimus snapped his fingers and Katie's eyes blinked open.

"Well?" she asked. "Did it work?"

Dr. Septimus paused a moment. "No," he lied, "I'm afraid I didn't discover anything."

Katie rolled her eyes. "Big surprise. No offence, Dr. Septimus, but I really don't think hypnosis is gonna get us anywhere."

Septimus suppressed a grin and nodded. "You may be right, Katie." He stood up. "I'm afraid that's all the time we have for today, but I'll pencil you in for another appointment next week." He walked to a cupboard nearby and found a bottle of pills which he brought to her and placed in her hand. "These are some very mild sleep aids," he told her. "I'd like you to take one every night before you go to bed.

Katie looked at the bottle of pills in her hand a moment. "I dunno… sleeping pills really aren't my thing."

"It's just until next week, Katie. I want to see if you still have these dreams when sedated, and it should also help you get some much-needed rest."

She thought about it another moment and shrugged her shoulders. "Alright… you're the doctor."

---

That night, Katie prepared for bed, dressing in pair of purple shorts and a black tank-top, and heading to her bedroom. As the doctor suggested, Katie took one pill before slipping under the covers. "A week of this won't be so bad, I guess," she told herself. "It's better than being stuck on antidepressants for life."

Pulling up the covers, Katie reached over to turn off the lamp on the nightstand by her bed and closed her eyes. Soon enough, she felt the drug take effect and fell asleep. As she slept, she was haunted by her dreams again, but this time it was much more vivid. Everything she saw she saw crystal clear, and she heard and felt everything as if it was real.

As the dream continued, her skin began to change color from its natural flesh tone to a pale blue, and her fingernails grew into long claws. A webbing grew between her fingers and toes, and her body suddenly thrashed, racked with pain as a tail grew from the base of her spine. Her teeth even began to change, growing longer and sharper. Her ears became like fish fins on either side of her head, and her hair turned from brown to dark blue. Suddenly, her eyes snapped open, revealing themselves to have turned pure blue. Hissing in an animalistic way, Katie jumped from her bed, looking around as if she didn't recognize her surroundings, and she ran out of the room.

She found the living room window and forced it open before jumping out into the night air. She fell to the street below, landing on her feet unharmed before running off, looking as if she was frantically searching for something.

Luckily, there was no one on the streets of San Francisco that night, but still she ran, trying to find something, anything familiar. But there was nothing. She breathed heavily, as if frightened by the alien surroundings, but then she heard a strange whistling sound. She turned around, trying to locate the source of the noise. A few dogs barked, probably having heard the same sound.

Katie dropped down on all fours, her new claws digging into the concrete and leaving long scratch marks. Suddenly, she bolted in the direction the whistling had come from, running faster than she ever had before. She heard the whistle again and kept running until she came to a park.

She looked around, trying to find the source of the strange sound, when something hit her shoulder. She snarled in pain and turned to see a dart sticking out of her skin. She pulled it out, but already she began to feel drowsy again. She fell to the ground, her breathing becoming heavier as she struggled to stay awake. The last thing she saw before losing consciousness was a man stepping out from the shadows, looking down at her with a smile…

---

She awoke again, but this time she was strapped to a table, in some kind of basement. She struggled against the restraints that held her down, growling, but it was no use.

"Glad to see you awake, my dear," a voice said from somewhere nearby, and she turned to see that man smiling at her. Had she been in her right mind, Katie would have recognized the morbid smile of Dr. Septimus.

"You must be wondering what's going on," he said, taking a seat in a chair nearby. "Well, let me explain. You, my dear, are a very rare creature indeed. Born a human, but with a very distinct genetic mutation, which somehow held the memories and characteristics of a creature that lived thousands of years ago."

Katie growled again. She couldn't understand Septimus at the moment, but she knew he had plans for her… plans she wouldn't like.

Septimus smiled again. "You could call it a case of reincarnation," he continued, "but that would be oversimplifying it. I've waited over fifty years to find someone like you, Katie, and now I finally have!" He stood up and approached her, touching her cheek softly. She snarled and snapped at his hand but he pulled back before he could be bitten and laughed. "Quite the feisty she-beast, aren't you?" he asked. He turned a crank below the table, causing it to tilt up until she was almost in a standing position. "Those pills I gave you," he explained, "aren't really sleeping pills. It's a formula I concocted years ago, designed to activate dormant genetic anomalies, in your case the genetic code of the creature you once were. I wondered if the change would be subtle, but I'm delighted to see there's nothing subtle about it." He laughed again and reached into his pocket, taking out the same pocket watch he had used earlier. He waved it in front of her eyes again, and she instinctually watched it swing back and forth.

"Listen to me very carefully," he told her, "you are now in my control. When you take the pill each night and change, you will come to me and do my bidding. Then the next morning, you will have no memory of the night before. Do you understand?" Katie slowly nodded her head and he smiled. "Good… Now when I snap my fingers, you will be completely under my control. One… two…" he snapped his fingers and Katie blinked. For once, she was calm.

Septimus undid the restraints, and turned to Katie. "Now," he said as she stood there, looking forward in a trance-like state, "what shall we do first, my loyal servant…?"

---

Again, sorry that chapter sucked.

A fun fact, though, Dr. Andre Septimus, the villain of this story (if you haven't guessed that by now) was inspired by the villain from "The Bride of Frankenstein," whose name was Dr. Septimus Pretorius. His first name, Andre, is based on the name of the original Fly, and was suggested by my friend Sarah. :)


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